We "slept in" this morning until 7:15 after getting to bed later than usual in Cape May last night. The kids were still asleep, so Ann and I had breakfast and got the boat ready without them. We pulled out of Cape May at 8:00 and headed towards the inlet into the Atlantic Ocean.
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| Leaving Cape May behind |
The trip today was 38 miles along the Eastern Coast of the US. The most direct route took us about 5 miles offshore. We could still see the land the whole time. As soon as we left the inlet, I could feel the waves, although the ride was pretty flat. I don't know if we even had 1 foot waves, but you somehow could sense that this was no longer the Chesapeake Bay. As soon as we turned North, I spotted dolphins, and called out to Ann. Elana and Benny showed up around that time. We slowed down and tried to get close, and we saw plenty of them but were not able to get any good pictures. The rest of the day, we were surrounded by dolphins all around us. Spectacular site! The trip took less than 2 hours.
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| Day 2 route, along the coast |
So far, we've been extremely lucky with weather. However, tomorrow's forecast in New York looks a bit dicey with a reasonable chance of thunderstorms starting at 3:00 pm, so we are planning on leaving the dock in Atlantic City no later than 6:30 a.m., which should get us in well before noon. I decided not to fill up the fuel tanks here, as we have around 420 gallons left and 95 nautical miles to go tomorrow. The trip to NYC should require about 250 gallons, so we can easily do that, and then we'll fill up there.
Under normal circumstances, the weather is a casual conversation topic, but when boating, it is everything. A bad day can be really serious if the weather is not right. We check the weather forecasts all day long.
The trip to Atlantic City was easy and uneventful and very different from boating in the Chesapeake where I've done most of my water travel. I really like using the radar in the ocean. I took a 2-day course in marine electronics at the Annapolis School of Seamanship last year which focused on radar, and the open waters of the Atlantic make the radar extremely useful, to the point where I think I would seriously miss it if I didn't have it. I always get into gadgets, and this boat offers limitless opportunities for me to geek out. Ann seemed surprised that I read the entire 400 page manual for my chart plotter/radar/AIS multi-function display. Well, maybe not too surprised.
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| Approaching Atlantic City |
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| Tied up in Atlantic City; first time docking stern in. Nailed it! |
Once we got settled into our slip in Atlantic City, I washed down the boat and then headed to the Borgata to play some poker. I played 2-5 from 11:30 to about 4:00 pm and had a decent winning session. If I hadn't lost my chips in one of the first hands when my QQ ran into AA, it would have been a very big winning session, but I spent most of the time just clawing back and was happy to book a modest win.
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| Arrived at Borgata. Before picture of starting stack. |
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| After picture of stack, right before cashing out. |
Later, our friend Aliya from New Jersey met us at the boat, and we went to Buddakan at Caesars for dinner.
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| Dinner with our good friend Alia Ramer from NJ at Buddakan |
Back at the marina, we have a great view of the Borgata at night, and are ready to turn in early because we need to start very early tomorrow.
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| View of Borgata from our marina |
Now if that damned band would stop playing that loud reggae music right by our boat, we could get some sleep! Oy.
